Forged
Treasury Department special agent T. R. Madden accosts the only passenger still sitting in the Grand Saloon of the SS Great Northern—Catherine “Kitty” Warren—fully expecting to finally nab the woman he’s suspected of being a jewelry smuggler since 1902. But she smoothly talks her way out of the situation, leading the customs’ collector to admonish Madden, telling him: “That lady was no crook.”
Forged is Teller’s second book after the popular 2018 fantasy retelling of the Cinderella story, All the Ever Afters. Forged introduces readers to 16-year-old Fanny who uses her new-found forgery skills to finagle a few dollars from a general store clerk so she can travel from Toronto to Cleveland and hopefully find her sister Betsy. After worming her way into the Garth household, she becomes young Mae Garth’s personal maid, friend, and pretend cousin Kitty. Fanny/Kitty over the next years resorts to deceptions, cons, forgeries, and smuggling to make her way.
Fans may be attracted to a story about a clever, resourceful, inventive, and sometimes daring grifter in the Golden Age, a woman who pushes against stereotypes and the roles imposed on women. Yet the schemes take their time to appear, and descriptions often leave out details behind the deceptions—the thinking and planning, the understanding of the mark, and the big play.
Some situations are serendipitous. Some scenes appear to be afterthoughts, interrupting the chronology or story sequence. Occasional first-person observations interfere, preventing readers from understanding the motivations of the main characters. Forged does reveal a dilemma for both the wealthy and poor: how to break free from society’s tethers and become independent. It doesn’t, however, make a convincing case for Kitty as a con-woman or her scams.
